Sarkisian preparing Huskies for Boise State’s tricks

The Broncos are known for their trick plays, especially in bowl games, and coach Steve Sarkisian is readying his team for them in any way possible.

There aren’t many guarantees in bowl games.

But maybe the closest is that Boise State will run a trick play or two (or three, or four), be it the Statue of Liberty play that helped the Broncos win the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma, or the fake punt that helped them win the 2010 Fiesta Bowl against TCU.

Now it’s Washington’s turn to try to avoid being on the bad end of some Boise State sleight of hand.

UW coach Steve Sarkisian said the Huskies are doing what they can to be ready.

“You have to expose your guys to them,” Sarkisian said. “… You can’t show them everything, but you try to show it to them and give them a sense of when they might occur and maybe who the main guys are that run their trick plays and all of those tricks and reminders that on game day can show up. But they do put a lot of strain on you mentally to recognize the trick play and then ultimately to defend it.”

Safety Justin Glenn said the UW players are aware something may be coming.

“You’ve just got to stay true to your keys,” Glenn said. “If you’ve got the quarterback and they run a double pass, you’ve got to be there. They do a lot of it. A lot of times the plays don’t work, so you don’t even really notice (that it was a trick play). But watching film, they do it in their first 15 (plays of the game), or any time they hit the red zone, 40-yard line coming in — they are running a trick play. They’ve got a bunch of them so we’ve just got to be on our toes and be ready for them.”

Bronco DT has Husky heritage

If the name of Boise State senior nose tackle Greg Grimes sounds familiar to longtime UW fans, it should — his father of the same name was a three-year starter for Washington during the Don James era.

The elder Grimes started at safety for the Huskies from 1977-79, leading UW in interceptions with three in 1978 and returning picks for touchdowns against Stanford in 1977 and 1978.

The younger Grimes attended Inderkum High in Sacramento and was rated a three-star defensive lineman coming out of high school. His mother, Deborah, said the first recruiting letter he received was from UW. However, the Huskies did not offer Grimes a scholarship and he chose Boise State after initially committing to Utah State. “That was initially his first interest was UW,” Deborah Grimes said.

In fact, she said her son has worn his father’s Rose Bowl ring for good luck.

Grimes is now a backup nose tackle for the Broncos and has made 26 tackles this season, playing in all 12 games. In another connection with UW, Deborah Grimes’ sister, Kim Smith, works with the football team at Grant High School in Sacramento and is close with the family of Husky safety Shaq Thompson, a former star at Grant.

“Everything that is in our china cabinets is UW stuff and Boise stuff,” Deborah Grimes said.